Common Scams

Citizens National Bank strives to protect our customers’ accounts and identities. Below is a list of common scams that may be used to attempt to steal personal banking information or to gain money through a scam. Keep in mind that Citizens National Bank will not request your personal information or account information by email or cell phone text message. Please do not give out any personal information through the Internet, email, or text message to any party that you do not believe to be legitimate.

When in doubt, check with Citizens National Bank and we can help determine if it is a scam or phishing attempt.

Phishing Attempts

A Phishing attempt is simply looking for any personal or financial information of a consumer. The con-artists will use this information to perform fraud for their own financial gain.

These attempts can be through the mail, email, phone, cell phone, or text message.

Other forms of Phishing:

Smishing Attempts

Smishing uses cell phone text messages to deliver the "bait" to get you to divulge your personal information. The method used to actually "capture" your information in the text message may be a web site URL or a phone number that connects to an automated voice response system.

Vishing Attempts

Vishing is a form of phishing, where instead of people receiving an email trying to lure them into giving personal information, the criminal uses a phone call, either live or automated, to attack the bank or credit union customer and get critical information.

Below is an example of a text message scam:

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From: 502

First National Bank Alert: Your card strating (yes they spelled it wrong) with 4054 has been deactivated. Please contact us at 903-258-9283 to reactivate your card.

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Overpayment Scam

In this type of scam, a consumer is selling an item either in the paper or on the Internet. The con-artist contacts them and wishes to purchase the item. When the consumer receives a check, the amount of the check is for more than the purchase amount of the item.

The consumer then has contact with the purchaser again and the purchaser instructs them to send the difference back to them by Western Union or MoneyGram.

You are responsible for the entire amount of the fraudulent check when it is returned, and may have also lost the item in the “sale.”

Lottery Scam

In the lottery scam, a consumer receives an unsolicited letter claiming that they have won some type of lottery. This lottery can be an international lotto or even a local one such as Readers Digest. Along with the letter is a counterfeit check for an amount usually less than $5,000.00.

The letter also has a lotto representative's name and number for the consumer to contact to find out what they need to do to receive the rest of their winnings. If called, the lotto representative will have the consumer cash the check and send the majority of the funds by Western Union or MoneyGram to pay the ‘taxes’ on the winnings.

You can protect yourself from this scam by paying close attention to the circumstances. If you haven't entered the lottery then how could you win? If someone is requesting you to send funds back to them, this is of concern.

Secret Shopper Scam

In this type of scam, a consumer receives a counterfeit check for an amount usually less than $5,000.00. The scammer instructs you to cash or deposit the check and keep some of the funds for your pay. With some of the funds, you go to a few businesses and purchase small dollar items while you are secretly taking notes on the treatment you are receiving.

With the bulk of the funds, you send Western Union or MoneyGram transactions to them while you take notes on the service. They tell you that they are monitoring the service on their end to complete the survey.

You are responsible for the missing funds when the check comes back as a fraudulent check.